Three injured in Bel Air area crash Thursday

Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company firefighters work to free one of the victims in a collision Thursday afternoon on Route 543 near Route 22 east of Bel Air that sent three people to area hospitals.

Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company firefighters work to free one of the victims in a collision Thursday afternoon on Route 543 near Route 22 east of Bel Air that sent three people to area hospitals. (Photo courtesy of Mark Ensor, Bel Air VFC / Baltimore Sun Media Group)

DAVID ANDERSON, daanderson@baltsun.com

Three people were hospitalized Thursday after a three-vehicle accident on Route 543 near Route 22 east of Bel Air.

The crash happened around 1:30 p.m. on Route 543 between Prindle Drive and Route 22.

A trooper at the Maryland State Police Barrack in Bel Air, who declined to give his name, said one person was taken by helicopter to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore.

He said shortly before 2:30 p.m. that State Police were still investigating the accident.

The road was closed for more than an hour following the accident.

First responders with the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company had to cut open two vehicles to rescue the people trapped inside, a process that took about 10 minutes, according to Rich Gardiner, a spokesman for the Harford County Volunteer Fire & EMS Association and member of the Bel Air fire company.

The person who was flown had serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Gardiner said via text message.

Gardiner reported on the Bel Air Fire Company's Facebook page that two other people were taken by ambulance to "a regional trauma center."